The general director Juanma Revuelta and the manager of CILIFO in Finnova José Manuel Requena took part in the event, celebrated in the University of Huelva.
On 19 June, the University of Huelva hosted the presentation of the Iberian Centre for Research and Combating Forest Fires (Cilifo), in which 15 institutions from the regions of Andalusia, Algarve and Alentejo are taking part. The setting up of this Centre is part of a project approved by the Operational Programme for Cross-border Cooperation POCTEP and is co-financed with FEDER Funds. The centre will be located on the Carmen Campus of the University of Huelva. The project has a duration of three years and a financial endowment of 24.6 million euros to undertake all the actions of the project in the territory of intervention of the three participating regions. The Finnova Foundation participates as a partner in the project and the event was attended by the general director Juanma Revuelta and the head of CILIFO in Finnova José Manuel Requena.
The event was attended by the rector of the University of Huelva, María Antonia Peña, and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, Carmen Crespo. The objectives pursued by this centre, coordinated by the Regional Government of Andalusia, are the following: to strengthen and combine cooperation, working procedures and training between forest fire prevention and extinction devices in the cooperation area of the Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucía Euroregion; to promote the creation of lasting and quality employment in the area; to reduce the economic cost of fires by creating a rural economy linked to the landscape and to improve the response capacity to forest fires of the administrations and authorities involved in the fight against them in the three participating regions.
The CILIFO project consists of a series of actions, grouped in the areas of infrastructure, awareness, training, development and innovation that will allow to implement and improve the strategy to fight forest fires in Spain and Portugal. In this way, a cross-border training plan in fire prevention and extinction will be designed and implemented, based on the acquisition of skills and permanent learning by the extinction operatives of Spain and Portugal, and an awareness and research plan will be launched with the participation of researchers from all regions.
